An Observationally Motivated Framework for AGN Heating of Cluster Cores

The cooling flow problem is a long-standing puzzle that has received considerable recent attention, in part because the mechanism that quenches cooling flows in galaxy clusters is likely to be the same mechanism that sharply truncates the high end of the galaxy luminosity function. Most of the recent models for halting cooling in clusters have focused on AGN heating, but the actual heating mechanism has remained mysterious. Here we present a framework for AGN heating derived from a Chandra survey of gas entropy profiles within cluster cores. This set of observations strongly suggests that the inner parts of cluster cores are shock-heated every ~10⁸ yr by intermittent AGN outbursts, driven by a kinetic power output of ~10⁴⁵ ergs s^-1 and lasting at least 10⁷ yr. Beyond ~30 kpc these shocks decay to sound waves, releasing buoyant bubbles that heat the core's outer parts. Between heating episodes, cooling causes the core to relax toward an asymptotic pure cooling profile. The density distribution in this asymptotic profile is sufficiently peaked that the AGN shock does not cause a core entropy inversion, allowing the cluster core to retain a strong iron abundance gradient, as observed.